The province has found mercury in soil and possibly buried metal in an area upstream from Grassy Narrows First Nation and Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) Independent Nations that was identified by a former paper mill worker as a dumping ground for mercury-filled barrels.

The Environment Ministry’s findings confirm results found by the Toronto Star one year ago.

The mercury-tainted soil and the metallic underground “anomalies” were found in a clearing identified by Kas Glowacki as the area in Dryden, Ont., where he and a small crew dumped 50 drums of salt and mercury in 1972.

The province says it will dig up the clearing for more answers.

“We are continuing our site assessment and will be excavating areas where there are larger anomalies this coming spring,” said an Environment Ministry spokesperson, Gary Wheeler, in an email to the Star.

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Between 1962 and 1970, 10 tonnes of mercury from the Dryden paper mill were dumped into the Wabigoon River that flows to Indigenous communities in northern Ontario. (Randy Risling/Toronto Star)

Between 1962 and 1970, 10 tonnes of mercury from the Dryden paper mill, then owned by Reed Paper, were dumped into the Wabigoon River, which flows to the two Indigenous communities in northern Ontario.

Mercury contamination, a serious health risk, has plagued the people there for decades. Dangerous and persistently high levels of mercury found in the river sediment and fish in the river system suggest there is an ongoing source.

Until recently, provincial officials had said the site was not an ongoing source of mercury to the river system. Scientist John Rudd has said that, historically, paper mills have been known to be sources of contamination long after they stopped using mercury in the paper-bleaching process.

Mercury has not been used in paper production at the site in decades, and there is no suggestion that Domtar, several owners removed from Reed Paper, is responsible for any ongoing source of mercury.

Last January, the Star and the environmental group Earthroots dug several holes in the area identified by Glowacki and had the soil tested at a lab. The holes were dug behind the riverside factory. The soil showed mercury readings up to 80 times natural levels.

In September, a provincial crew dug its own holes and in one (which the province labelled TS1 for the “Toronto Star,” as the Star had previously dug there) found mercury levels that were 240 times higher than expected natural levels in soils that were even deeper than those taken by the Star, according to a provincial report on the search that the Star has obtained.

Western University Prof. Brian Branfireun said the province’s results confirm and strengthen the Star’s findings last year.

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“The deeper the soil samples, the higher the concentration,” said Branfireun, who holds the Canada Research Chair in environment and sustainability.

“It still says to me the same thing that we saw last time, which is that the contamination is likely coming from a below ground source.”

The province did not explain why it took one year to confirm the Star’s results.

The underground metal “anomalies” were detected in October by a government worker who scanned the area with a hand-held electromagnetic surveying device.

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The Star first published Glowacki’s allegations in the summer of 2016, when he recounted that, as a 21-year-old casual labourer, he spent a week on a crew that shovelled out a vat and filled about 50 drums. At the top of the vat, veins of mercury streaked the salt, Glowacki said, adding that as he and a co-worker shovelled toward the bottom, the mercury concentrations seemed to increase.

Glowacki remembered that some drums were carelessly pushed off a flatbed truck and toppled into a pit that was lined with polyurethane sheets.

In 2015, a guilt-ridden Glowacki told the Grassy Narrows community about the alleged dump of mercury-and-salt-filled barrels. In response, an environment ministry staffer assured community leadership in an email that “the Dryden pulp mill is not a source of mercury.”

Kas Glowacki says he was part of a team that dumped drums of mercury upstream from Grassy Narrows. (Jayme Poisson/Toronto Star file photo)

This echoed what another ministry spokesperson told the public around that time: There is “no evidence to suggest that mercury levels in the river system are such that any remediation, beyond continuing natural recovery, is warranted or advisable.”

In late 2016, Ontario’s environment minister announced the province had searched for the barrels and concluded they did not exist. The government had searched an area, near that sampled by Earthroots and the Star. Before that search, an Earthroots representative asked the province to search in a larger area, which did not happen.

There are other locations on the mill property that scientists believe could be an ongoing source of mercury to the river, including the site of the old chlor-alkali plant, where mercury was used to bleach paper.

In November, the Star reported that the provincial government knew in the 1990s that mercury was visible in soil under that site and never told anyone from Grassy Narrows or Whitedog.

The Star also reported that groundwater samples taken from wells on the mill property over the years have shown extremely high mercury levels. The province’s environment ministry said it was unaware of this data until the summer of 2016, when it received a report based on historical data commissioned by current owner Domtar.